Reading list for a year of chaos: These books make 2024 make sense (kind of)

My end-of-year assignment for Salon's staff was simple, perhaps deceptively so. I wanted to know what books we'd read this year that shed light — from some direction, and in some fashion — on the just-concluded year of extraordinary change, massive disruption and back-to-the-future political amnesia. There weren't any rules: The books didn't have to be new, and didn't have to directly concern politics or history. They didn't even have to be nonfiction, although only Amanda Marcotte went there. (Special gold star!). Saying something like "Enjoy!" here seems positively wrong-headed, but it's one hell of a list. — Andrew O'Hehir

"Down With the System: A Memoir (of Sorts)" by Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian's unmistakable voice is not only heard in System of a Down's driving, soaring heavy metal tunes, but also through his bold lyrics. This memoir is the logical extension of his ongoing and uncompromising expression of self, art and activism. While fans of the band may have previously been aware of Tankian’s social and political views previously, 9/11 proved to be a flashpoint. Not only did that day mark the band hitting No.1 on the Billboard charts with the single "Chop Suey!" — banned two days later for its lyric, "I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide" –– but the events of that day also prompted Tankian’s controversial essay, "Understanding Oil." His suggestion that U.S. policy in the Middle East policy was an underlying reasons for the terrorist attacks earned him and his bandmates immediate backlash. 

Tankian draws a line from his grandparents' survival of the Armenian genocide and his father's sacrifice of a musical dream to life in America to his own eventual activist awakening. In a year when the world seems to have become desensitized to the word “genocide” and its realities, Tankian’s personal quest to recognize the wrong done to his people is a reminder that denial of these atrocities is an everyday occurrence – but shouldn’t be. — Hanh Nguyen

"The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan

A great book will always feel relevant to the reader, no matter when or where it was written. But when this year, after a lifetime of reading around it, I actually tucked in to Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique," I was shocked at how bracingly relevant this sacred text of second-wave feminism felt. Spoiler: The villain is capitalism! The skill with which Friedan connects the dots between the subjugation of intelligent, educated women and the ruthless, calculated mind-numbing agenda of consumerism turns out to be her deftest move. "In all this talk of femininity and women's role," she writes, "one forgets that the real business of America is business." After all, a woman shopping remains more useful to the wealthy than a woman thinking or doing ever is. And in a year in which our nation's slavering fealty to billionaires could not be more brazenly, dangerously obvious, "The Feminine Mystique" remains a punch in the gut and a warning to our oppressors. "You'd be surprised," a doctor tells Friedan at one point, "at the number of these happy suburban wives who simply go berserk one night." — Mary Elizabeth Williams

"Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections" by David Daley

“When the Court changes, so does the law,” writes former Salon editor in chief Daley in his latest elegantly written deep dive into the organized conservative machinations to subvert majority rule, “a careful, patient strategy to win through the judiciary what could not be won at the ballot box.” Chief Justice John Roberts’ rise to power as the head voice of the court that has kneecapped the Voting Rights Act, enshrined corporate influence in politics, overturned the right to an abortion and established presidential immunity is chronicled in this deeply researched and sourced investigation. “Antidemocratic” is a meticulously crafted — and yes, entertaining! — true story of the long, organized game the right has played with the Supreme Court, essential reading for understanding how constitutional "originalism" became such a powerful tool in the fight for minority right-wing rule and how the Federalist Society built so much power. “You might even say there is no law,” writes Daley, “only Justices.” As this book details, conservatives not only understand that, they have been laser-focused on the assignment for decades now. — Erin Keane

"The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur" by Lev Grossman

Grossman's newest fantasy bestseller can be ham-fisted at times, but mostly it’s a deeply enjoyable rewrite of the Arthurian legend in the age of Trumpism. The book kicks off with the death of the mythical king to ask deeper questions about why people continue to struggle with the responsibility — and the power — that comes with self-rule. — Amanda Marcotte

"Democracy and Liberty" by W.E.H. Lecky

Reading the work of the formerly famous Anglo-Irish historian William Edward Hartpole Lecky, in his day seen as one of the most eminent scholars of the Victorian age, is like taking a disorienting ride in an intellectual hot-tub time machine. While Lecky’s political sensibilities may seem broadly unappetizing to 21st-century “progressives,” he is too capacious and sympathetic a thinker (and too powerful a prose stylist, in his own overwrought fashion) to be easily pigeonholed or stereotyped. You can find a few contemporary right-wingers along the margins of libertarian and authoritarian thinking who try to claim Lecky as one of their own, but he doesn’t fit their agenda too well either. He was a true believer in the British Empire, and also an Irishman by birth who was all too conscious of its abundant internal contradictions. He feared the advent of socialism, unsurprisingly, but also the rise of “ultramontanism,” a semi-polite term for Roman Catholic theocracy.

This two-volume doorstop from 1896, exploring what Lecky saw as an irresolvable tension between its titular concepts, offers the best summary of his thorny historical analysis, although his undoubted magnum opus is a seven-volume history (!) of 18th-century Britain, which I won’t pretend to have read. Lecky’s fundamental complaint about democracy is along the same lines as those of Plato (which he had certainly read) and Nietzsche (which he almost certainly hadn’t), but his survey of the democratic revolutions of his own century, although tendentious, is highly nuanced. He sees the historical impulse toward mass electoral democracy as both noble and honorable, quite likely reflecting an innate, irresistible tendency in human nature. But its inevitable outcome, he argues, is mob rule, bitter factional division, the debasement of civic culture and finally some version of Caesarism. That prognosis seemed laughably misguided for most of the intervening decades. Does it seem that way now? — Andrew O'Hehir

“Richard Cobden: Independent Radical” by Nicholas C. Edsall

Richard Cobden is an obscure figure to most Americans, but students of 19th-century British history will recognize him as the leading political figure advocating low tariff. Both as a private activist and a member of Parliament, Cobden fought to repeal the onerous Corn Laws of 1846, which imposed tariffs on foreign goods that he proved redistributed wealth from the poorer and middle classes to the wealthy. The anti-Corn Law movement comprises the bulk of Cobden’s legacy today, along with his role in negotiating a trade-based peace treaty with France in 1860. But Cobden supported free trade as one plank of a larger liberal platform that included staunch opposition to imperialism. His grand agenda was literally world peace; he told a meeting of fellow free traders in 1846, “I believe that the physical gain will be the smallest gain to humanity from the success of this principle,” but the larger one was “drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonism of race, and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace.”

Donald Trump’s election makes clear that it’s also possible to gain power by calling for high tariffs and trade war, rather than respecting both other nations’ rights and their own country’s consumers. These gloomy thoughts lurked in my subconscious as I gobbled up this entire book over Thanksgiving weekend. He believed in a world in which the powerful would finally learn that peace could be profitable. Instead, they have focused entirely on profit and ignored the potential for peace. — Matthew Rozsa

“Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century” by Hunter S. Thompson

Although the works of Hunter S. Thompson have been thoroughly mulled over by every pot-smoking college sophomore and their brother, in this less familiar tome, a collection drawn from HST’s later life, he discusses everything from the jingoistic fever that swept over the U.S. in the wake of 9/11 to his short-lived political career in Colorado to a bizarre and baffling tale of a memorable bender, “Fear and Loathing in Elko.”

Viewed from 2024, the most striking aspect of this book is Thompson’s discussion of the image of America around the world and how, in his view, those in power “would rather kill than live peacefully.” Combine that with his personal accounts of how quickly and effectively those with political power move to squash popular movements, even ones as frankly ridiculous as the “freak power” movement, and the eerie parallels to our current moment are obvious.

Many on the American left felt in 2024 that no lessons had been learned from the 2016 and 2020 elections by those who could have made a difference. Revisiting Thompson’s work made me consider that no lessons have been learned by America’s political classes since at least 2000, and that the failure is deliberate. — Russell Payne

"K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry into Why We Love Korean Television" by Grace Jung

Sure, we may like to gaze upon beautiful people who fall in love backed by an addictive K-pop soundtrack, but comedian Grace Jung offers a deeper look at why this particular form of Asian drama has become both so addictive and cathartic for viewers around the world, especially since the pandemic started. From "Goblin" to "Squid Game" (and everything in between that may or may not star Gong Yoo) Jung breaks down many popular titles, providing eye-opening cultural context that is rooted in much of South Korea's history and loss, through mini lessons about recurring themes and tropes. 

An extension of her "K-drama School" podcast, this book offers at times an overwhelming crash course, veering from chatty and humorous to raw and harrowing as she delves into many of her own traumas that are reflected onscreen.

Wonder why there's so much product placement for Subway sandwiches or characters who eat ravenously to excess? She has answers for that. Why is there an obsession with amnesia, disability, bullying, zombies and violent, bloody vengeance? Jung explains the roots of these tropes through an examination of Japanese colonialism, generational trauma, governmental corruption and more. Although this book was published last in April, Jung’s lessons about misogyny and the 1980s Gwanju Uprising illuminate what happened in 2024 with the 4B movement and the Korean people's well-honed culture of protest that helped block the recent failed coup. — Hanh Nguyen

“Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences” by D.W. Pasulka

The plague of UFOs (or alleged “drones”) across the northeastern U.S. probably right now probably doesn't involve aliens, even if the phenomenon remains unexplained. Indeed, scientists, scholars and “well, actually” nerds prefer the term UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) but regardless of the terminology, they are anything but new. In religion scholar D.W. Pasulka’s latest book, she attempts to demystify some of these strange encounters, reminding us that humans have long claimed to communicate with non-human intelligences, and that some of these stories are even more outlandish than Hollywood or select government panels would have you believe. It’s little wonder that UAPs have sparked a global religious movement, but whatever is really up there in the skies, the enduring mystery will keep inspiring folks to look up. — Troy Farah

"Late Fascism" by Alberto Toscano

Donald Trump’s name appears on the first page of Italian political theorist Alberto Toscano’s slender but challenging new book, and hardly at all after that. That’s a considered decision: Toscano is less interested in the charismatic figureheads of fascist movements than in understanding fascism as a “dynamic” or “process” that has unfolded throughout recent history, and as a mythical, irrational current running below the surface of capitalist liberal democracy. Few recent books about the fascist tendency (whether in Nazi Germany, Trump’s America or anywhere else) have so precisely identified the allure of fascism, which Toscano calls a “perverted utopian promise” that activates a sense of “unfulfilled pasts and unrealized presents” among social groups who feel “somehow out of sync with the rationalizing present of capitalism.”

Channeling Ernst Bloch’s pioneering study from the 1930s, Toscano makes a point that’s even more difficult to swallow: Fascist ideology is not entirely deceptive, in the sense that it draws upon “an old and romantic antagonism to capitalism, derived from deprivations in contemporary life, with a longing for a vague ‘other.’” Liberalism and socialism, by contrast, offer rational narratives about shared economic progress and greater equality which lack that kind of mythic power, and sound increasingly hollow when their promises are not fulfilled.

One reason Toscano writes very little about Trump (or about Hitler and Mussolini) is because he believes such cartoonish or nightmarish figures are, in a sense, both reassuring and misleading. When we see them coming, we tell ourselves that they mark the dividing line between democracy and fascism, and that we can definitely tell the difference. The question Toscano asks us to consider is where we really are on that continuum right now. — Andrew O'Hehir

“The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality” by Amanda Montell

Unlike what Joan Didion once suggested, magical thinking is no longer reserved for those who are grieving. From QAnon conspiracy theories to a rise in “manifesting” to people who believe Donald Trump is a lightworker to multi-level marketing scams that increasingly resembel cults, it can seem as if many people are “delulu” these days. That’s precisely why I was super excited to dig into Montell’s book this year. In her book, she investigates the world of cognitive biases, the errors in thinking that occur when people are processing information. Cognitive bias have always existed, but her spin on it explores how it has changed in our era as a result of information overload. This book makes sense of all the magical thinking we encounter on a daily basis, and offers ways society can find its way out of it. — Nicole Karlis

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"How to Fix a Broken Planet: Advice for Surviving the 21st Century" by Julian Cribb

Julian Cribb is one of the few popular authors who thoroughly breaks down the intersection between science and politics in an accessible way. As I wrote in a summary for Salon, Cribb “warns that humanity is running out of time to fix the escalating crisis” facing our planet. Instead of facing up to these problems, we are turning toward far right-wing demagogues selling snake oil.

Cribb proposes creating a Global Truth Commission, using “technological innovation to wean humanity off of agriculture and create food in more sustainable ways” and finding ways to address the various threats to our species holistically, rather than separately. Climate change, he stresses, is not the only existential crisis facing humanity: Others range from the looming menace of nuclear weapons and biodiversity collapse to plastic pollution on the land and in the skies.

“There are 10 major catastrophic threats to the human future,” Cribb told Salon, “and they're all working together. They're all coming together at one time.” — Matthew Rozsa

"Paper of Wreckage: The Rogues, Renegades, Wiseguys, Wankers, and Relentless Reporters Who Redefined American Media" by Susan Mulcahy and Frank DiGiacomo

Fans of “Succession” might also take an interest in this detailed history of The New York Post from shortly before the entry of media mogul Rupert Murdoch up to 2024. The book is constructed almost entirely of interviews with former Post staffers, along with others in the tabloid’s orbit. Their first-hand accounts offer nuggets of insight into how and why American journalism reached its current critical condition. 

While the heirs to the Murdoch business empire vie for control of the business and command of an immense fortune, Mulcahy and DiGiacomo offer a deeper look into the and the deliberate steps taken to create the scandal-obsessed right-wing news machine that today not only dominate the Post’s tabloid space but also the broadsheet and cable news industries. It’s hard to imagine that so many digital-first right-wing outlets would exists in their current form without the example set by the Postl.

There’s a memorable quote early in the book from Roberta Brandes Gratz, a Post reporter who was present during the Murdoch takeover. The paper’s former owner, Gratz says, was removed from reality, but Murdoch was “very involved in reality —- trying to change it.” There’s no doubt in my mind that for better or worse — and it’s mostly the latter — we all live in the reality that Murdoch created. — Russell Payne